


some girls like girls (some boys got a boyfriend)

by Anonymous



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Coming Out, Gen, comic compliant in the vaguest sense, i haven't actually read them so you know, i'm just freestylin', ships are mention only, supportive friendship is wholesome friendship, wlw mlm solidarity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-14
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:40:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27006718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: A conversation between Korra and Wu on their way to see Toph in Foggy Swamp.
Relationships: Korra/Asami Sato, Mako/Prince Wu (Avatar)
Comments: 18
Kudos: 237
Collections: Anonymous





	some girls like girls (some boys got a boyfriend)

**Author's Note:**

> *posts first work in new fandom anonymously to test the waters*
> 
> Look, I love Wu. I love Korra. I like the idea that they become unexpectedly good friends. 
> 
> Completely unrelated, but I also like the idea that Toph really likes Wu's singing (just like the badgermoles!!! exclaims Wu with hearts and sparkles in his eyes, and she snorts) and NOBODY GETS IT and SHE WON'T EXPLAIN WHY. So if y'all want Tophwu broship next, lemme know.

The journey out to Foggy Swamp isn’t a long one, but it’s long enough that Wu finds the time to make conversation.

He’s grown on Korra, enough that she’d even say she likes him, most of the time, but when he starts in with that wheedling tone, Korra doesn’t need to turn around to see his flirtatious expression.

“So, listen, Korra…”

Her shoulders tense and she shuts her eyes, wincing minutely. This is not a conversation she wanted to have with the Earth King, ever. Asami told her how he’d asked her out the first time they met, and Korra didn’t think she had it in her to be as nice about it as her girlfriend. 

Who is, in fact, her girlfriend, and while she hasn’t said that in so many words to Wu, they haven’t been subtle. What if this is going to be a different sort of conversation? Korra knows the Earth Kingdom is staunchly against relationships like hers. 

“Yeah, Wu?” Korra stops walking, turning to face the King with her arms crossed, weary and wary. 

Some of it must show on her face, because Wu falters, and just for a second, his shoulders slump. Korra almost feels bad. She watches Wu reach up with one hand, scratching the back of his neck and looking away. 

“I just wanted to say that I think it’s really...amazing--and brave--that you’re with Asami.”

“Oh.” Korra blinks. “Oh, I--thanks, Wu.”

The tips of the young king’s ears have gone red. He still isn’t looking at Korra, but she can feel something in her soften, nonetheless.

_Oh_ indeed.

“I also wanted to apologize, for the way I acted in the past. I know I made you uncomfortable.” 

“I feel like… I mean, I appreciate that, but maybe you owe Asami this apology more?” Korra’s not sure what to do with her hands. She shoves them in her pockets and rocks on her heels. 

“And I absolutely will apologize to her, but she’s not the dame I’m scuffing my boots with right now.” 

Wu...has a point. Korra chuckles a little. 

“Alright, so. Apology accepted.” She fishes a hand out of her pocket and holds it out to Wu, who stares at it for a few seconds before taking it. Korra has never held such a smooth hand, man or woman’s, before. It’s kind of nice, actually. 

She lets go, turns around to start walking again. The edge of the swamp is in sight, and she wants to reach Toph by nightfall. 

“Uh, Korra?”

“Yeah?” Korra looks back over her shoulder, and Wu hasn’t moved at all. 

“How did you...know?”

“ _What_?” She turns around again, hands balling into fists--more out of surprise than anything else.

Wu holds his hands up, waving them slightly. His voice takes on a deliberately airy tone. 

“Never mind, too personal. I’m sorry.” He brings a fist up to his mouth like he’s fighting something back, but then it explodes out of him, the forcefulness of it literally knocking Korra back a step. “It’s just that you’re the only person I’ve ever met as brave as you and my whole life I’ve--”

Korra puts her hands on his shoulders and Wu cuts himself off, looking up at her with wide eyes, a watery sheen over their green. Different from Asami’s or Bolin’s, but familiar enough. She can feel him relax under her palms. 

“Look, Wu, all I know is that I love Asami. The way I feel about her, it’s like the way I used to feel about Mako, except it’s deeper, stronger. It makes my blood sing and my heart soar. When someone makes you feel that way, hiding it is a disservice to them and you.”

Wu wilts, dropping Korra’s gaze, and he kicks up a little bit of dust with his boot that lands on Korra’s. She’ll be annoyed about it later. This conversation feels too...big...to let something like that distract her. 

“I guess,” she continues, “I also know that, maybe… If someone grew up somewhere that made it seem like feeling the way I do about Asami, as a woman, were a bad thing… It would have been a lot harder to admit about myself.” The Water Tribes had never been actively against it, in the way that Korra knows the Earth Kingdom has been. How scary could it have been, growing up being told that your feelings were wrong somehow? How _awful_. Suddenly, many things about Wu are making a lot more sense. She gives his shoulders a gentle squeeze before dropping her hands, putting them on her hips. 

Wu is twisting his, biting his bottom lip, and then he looks up at Korra again. He takes a deep breath.

“I think I’m in love with Mako.”

Oh. That’s. Huh.

“Huh.”

It hangs in the air between them, Korra struggling with how to respond. How she feels about it. Even though she’s in love with Asami and completely over Mako, there’s still a faint twinge of near-wistfulness. No regret, though, and she wonders if that’s simply the lingering effect of a turbulent first love. It’s gone as quickly as it came. 

Wu doesn’t seem to have noticed Korra’s slip into her thoughts, or maybe he’s in his own head. After a moment that stretches until it feels like it might snap, Korra clears her throat.

“He’s a great kisser.”

Wu looks at Korra, startled, and then nods, expression shifting into something contemplative. 

“I worry his lips are chapped.”

“Oh, they absolutely are. You’re going to need to work on him about that. The man refuses to use lip balm.” 

“He can be so stubborn.”

“The worst.”

They both pause again, and then Wu laughs. 

“Maybe,” he says, “after I’ve democratized the Earth Kingdom, my next mission will be to bring acceptance to the Earth Kingdom. An… Ambassador for Love. What do you think, Korra?” 

Wu sidles up next to her, linking his arm through hers. They fall into step as they start walking again, and it’s almost like Korra’s traveling with an old friend, and not the king she’s only just stopped thinking of as annoying. 

“I think,” she says, “that’s a great idea.”

**Author's Note:**

> Give it to me straight, Doc. Is the fic gonna make it?


End file.
